The Empowerment Factory’s First Week of Summer 2025 Art in the Parks
Art in the Park is a series of small weekly community art and reading events from June 25 – August 27. They are hosted in Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Providence public parks.
Last week, The Empowerment Factory kicked off its first week of Art in the Park’s summer session.
Each one-hour workshop includes a read-aloud illustrated story time, a guided discussion of social-emotional learning lessons, and a related craft project for proud young artists to take home. Wednesday’s session was held in Hope Artist Village, while Thursday’s session was held in Providence’s 1-95 District Park.
While Pawtucket’s Art in the Park is typically held in Fairlawn Veteran Memorial Park in Pawtucket, the heat wave moved Wednesday’s event indoors to the Hope Artiste Village. Thursday's session was held outdoors despite a slight drizzle in Providence’s 1-95 District Park.
Each Art in the Park session kicked off at 6:00 PM with jokes and icebreakers by The Empowerment Factory Founder and Executive Director Gail Ahlers. As young students and families settled in, Ms. Gail’s jokes brought laughs.
Throughout the entirety of each session, English to Spanish translations were provided by Lead Teacher, Mr. Leon Ibacache=0.
The next segment of the session focused on Ms. Gail’s guided read-aloud and discussion of Peter H. Reynold’s Say Something. Both English and Spanish copies were available to attendees.
Ms. Gail remarked on this week’s social emotional learning objectives: “This week’s book and art activity are really meant to develop the self efficacy of a child, to say that your opinion matters, what you care about matters, and that you should share that with other people.”
Ms. Gail asked attendees: “What does it mean to speak from your heart?”
One student at Wednesday’s session responded: “Being honest.”
In the story-book, children learn the importance and impact of using their voice, whether it be through creating art or stopping someone from getting hurt.
The final segment of the evening focused on students led by Mr. Leon using The Empowerment Factory’s historical printing press to make their own custom print of Barack Obama’s quote “Your voice can change the world.”
Students drew everything from trucks to dinosaurs on their prints. At the close of the event, one young artist at Wednesday’s session said: “The number one thing I learned was that there’s a lot more ways people express themselves. Saying something with your voice is not the only thing you can do.”
Mr. Leon emphasized the impact of involving children and families in the art making process when using the historical printing press: “And at one point I’m just looking at them and I’m like: ‘do you want to do it yourself?’ And they’re like ‘ohhhh can I do it?’ That part is awesome.”
Mr. Jason Lloyd a parent who happened upon Wednesday’s session while picking up his children from dance classes said: “It was fantastic. They (Mr. Lloyd’s children) love art classes […] They have been hankering for something like this.”
Ms. Gail, Mr. Leon and the rest of the Empowerment Factory Team look forward to seeing more families coming to Art in Parks throughout this Summer. At least one session is held weekly on Wednesday and/or Thursday in Providence, Pawtucket, or Central Falls. Click here to see the full schedule and registration.